Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/330

 3i6 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.

his different way of thinking ; at his manner of telling in fo few ■words, the event of fo great a revo- lution, fo thatthe mind findsagreat number of different I'entiments that concur to fhakc her, and to com- pofe a pleafare for her.

Of tbe different caufes 'which may produce a fentiment.

It muft be remarked, that a fen- timent is not commonly produced in our foul by one fingle caufe. It is, iff may venture upon the term, a certain dofe, which at once pro- duces flrength and variety. Genius confifls in ftriking many organs at once ; and if the leveral writers are examined, perhaps it will be feen, that the bell, and thofe who have pleafed moft, are thofe who have excited in the foul the greatefl uamber of fenfations, at one and the fame time.

We love play becaufe it fatisfies our avarice J that is to fay, our de- iire of having more: it flatters our vanity by the idea of preference that fortune gives us, and of the at- tention that others pay to our fuc- cefs. It fatisfies our curiofity, in giving us a fpedacle. In fhort, it gives us the different pleafures of furprize.

Of delicacy.

Delicate people are thofe who, to every idea, or to every talte, join many acceffary ideas, or many ac- cefTary tafles. Grofs people have but one fenfation ; their foul can neither compound nor diffolvej they neither add any thing to, nor take any thing away fiom what na- ture gives ; whereas delicalepeople, who are in Icve, by compolition form almoll all the pleafures that are to be found in love. Polix-

ene and Apicius carry to thrir tables, tafles that are unknown to us vulg.:r eaters : and thofe who judge the works of wit with tall?, have and make to themfelves an infinity of fenfations that other men are llrangers to.

The y^ ne fcai quoi, in perfons and in things, is often an invi- fible charm, a natural grace, that cannot be defined, and which we have been forced to call the Je tie fcai quoi. I take it to be an etfedt principally founded on furprize; we are touched by being moie pleafed with a perfon than .we at firft ex- pected to be ; and we are agree- ably furprized to find thofe faults overcome, which our eyes pointed out to us, but which our hearts no longer acknowledge. This is the reafon why ugly women are very often pofTefled of the graces, and that it is but feldom that beautiful women have them. Graces are oftener found in the wit than in the face ; for a Ene face is feen at once, and fcarce any of it is concealed ; but wit fhews itfelf by little r.nd little, juft when it chules, andjufl as much as it chufes ; it can conceal itfelf, and make its appearance give that fort of furprize which confli- tutes the graces.

The graces are not fo much ia the features of the face, as in the manners ; for the manners are every inflant new, and may every moment create furprize.

Progrefs of furprize.

What makes the greatefl beauty, is when a thing furprizes but mo- derately at firft, but keeps up that furprize, increafes it, and at laft leads to admiration. The works of Raphael flrike but little at firfl light j but an extraordinary expref-

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